Joaquim Rodriguez may have lost his Maglia Rosa to an impressive Ryder Hesjedal today, but the Katusha rider insists that there is plenty of racing left and that he believes he can return to the top of the leaderboard in the days ahead.
Hesjedal surged clear on the final ascent to Cervinia, taking advantage of the power climb to gain an advantage over the smaller riders who tend to perform on steeper ramps. One of those is Rodriguez, who got clear of the other GC riders in chasing Hesjedal, but who was unable to get across and was eventually reeled in.
"I knew today it would have been hard for me. In fact I prefer steeper and shorter uphills, and the weather was very cold,” he said. “Moreover, Liquigas-Cannondale leaded the group and kept a high pace. I tried to attack in the final part in order to see how my rivals would have reacted and, especially, to defend the pink jersey, but I didn´t manage to.”
Hesjedal continued to eke out time as the climb continued and reached the line twenty seconds behind the stage winner Andrey Amador (Movistar) and runner-up Jan Barta (Team NetApp), who were in turn two seconds ahead of Alessandro de Marchi (Androni Giocattoli – Venezuela).
More importantly, the Canadian was 26 seconds ahead of Rodriguez, 2011 race winner Michele Scarponi (Lampre ISD) and the other contenders. He’d started the day seventeen seconds off the Maglia Rosa, and consequently captured it by nine seconds.
The gaps are still small, and with more difficult climbs coming up, Rodriguez is not losing hope that he can take his first Grand Tour. “I´m sorry I don´t have the leadership anymore, but this was just the first of the crucial summit stages,” he said. “There´s still plenty of time, and most of all tomorrow the climbing will be more suitable to my characteristics. We´ll try to re-take the jersey for sure.”
The sentiment was echoed by Scarponi, who had hoped to move closer to pink today but instead dropped time to Hesjedal and sits one minute twenty seconds behind.
“I was not at the top today, but despite this I performed a good stage on a long climb,” he said, referring to his eventual ninth place. “Lampre-ISD raced in a competitive way and thanks to [Damiano] Cunego's attack we forced other teams to use energies that will be important for tomorrow stage.”
The Giro d’Italia continues tomorrow with a tough stage to the top of the Pian dei Resinelli.